Once upon a time, when I was an investigative reporter, I hunted Nazis.
They were living in the twilight of their lives in Canada, enjoying a quiet retirement, with a government pension, to start work.
I made it my priority to find them and make their good lives miserable. It was my way of making sure that these murderers were brought to justice for the serious crimes they committed – especially against Jewish families.
I remember one Nazi, in particular. His name was Josef Nemsila. He was a Slovakian Nazi who helped round up 100,000 of the country’s Jews to be deported to the death camps.
I found out that he lives alone behind a chiropractor’s office outside of Toronto. When I knocked, the war criminal did not come. So, I waited. Then, a little boy with white hair and wearing a white shirt stepped out into the busy street, pulling a grocery cart behind him.
“Mr Nemsila,” I shouted. “Yes,” he answered. I found him. I asked Nemsila if “Jews” were the cause of his legal troubles and deportation.
The question was meant to be provocative. It worked. Nemsila unleashed a cauldron of racism and brutality that still burned like a hot cauldron inside the sick Nazi party.
My encounter with former Nazis came to mind when I read that the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, had an intimate dinner with a young, anti-Nazi, Nick Fuentes; rapper Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – is a company of abstinence at his home in Florida at the end of last month.
With Fuentes by his side, Ye later confirmed his neo-Nazi beliefs by admitting to elementary school massacre protester Alex Jones: “I love Hitler.”
“Well, I also see the good in Hitler. I love everybody,” one told Jones during an appearance on InfoWars about his hatred on Thursday.
Apparently, Trump complained that he was set up by his Nazi guests, who tried to make him the presidential candidate of Ye.
Look, there can be no argument on this point: Trump must have been breaking bread with Nemsila and other Nazis I’ve ever met – all of whom were proud and satisfied that they participated in the murder of six million Jews.
Trump said he didn’t know Fuentes before he dined with anti-Semites who might have considered Nemsila a powerful martyr for anti-Semitism.
This is similar to the German Nazis who said they knew nothing about how Jewish children, women and men were driven out of their country, starved and beaten to death or burned in ovens throughout Eastern Europe.
It was unbelievable at the time. It’s unbelievable now.
Trump has done some outrageous things during his time as a candidate and president. This latest scandal further proves that he is willing to cross any moral boundaries in order to further his own selfishness and unrelenting selfishness.
It should lead to the early dismissal of the presidential hopeful in 2024. But it will not, because, like the powerful Nazis responsible for planning and killing the Holocaust, Trump has millions of willing and active collaborators.
For too long, respectful commentary has been reluctant to accept the obvious: The Republican Party today is a breeding ground for America’s army of fascists. It is led, in fact, by a fascist who greets Hitler-adoring fascists with dignity and respect at Mar-a-Lago.
I remember when idiots and historians mocked reporters like me who knew that Trump and his MAGA hat-wearing disciples were the new voice of the fascist type that is an indisputable part of American political and cultural history. Trump’s regular dinner with Fuentes and Ye is the latest evidence that he is an unrepentant fascist who admires other fascists.
And don’t be fooled by recent reports of so-called “backlash” among some Republicans who have “alienated” Trump because of the many hand-picked candidates who endured in the midterm elections.
Beyond the shocking rebuke, so far, not a single Republican official has criticized Trump’s name for spending quality time with a Holocaust denier, fearing to alienate many of their “bases,” which, of course, is evident. the meaning of the foundation.
That difficult, controversial task was left to Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, who criticized his “close friend” for storing “human garbage” on his beach property.
“You’re better than this,” David Friedman tweeted.
No, he is not. Also, in fact, it is Friedman, the sycophant who defended and praised a fascist for moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
By the nature of the attack, Trump refuses not only to apologize for taking Fuentes and Ye but to repudiate their reprehensible beliefs. It is not surprising because, today, many Republicans are attracted to these beliefs.
Trump “seems to be very taken,” the source said, with “human garbage” Fuentes. “They get me,” Trump said.
Of course, they find Trump, who embodies every evil of Fuentes’ bad character and cancer. The only things that separate Trump from Fuentes are age and the luxury trappings of wealth.
However, what is abhorrent is the strange idea among liberal commentators that, instead of criticizing Neo-Nazis, we should try to understand them as “victims” of the government.
This is how someone described it in 2017, after the violent, white riots in Charlottesville. “Racist whites and Nazis may be unpleasant, but they are also victims. They too are out of work and often live in poverty in industrialized areas,” he wrote. And they also have the right to speak, regardless of their dirty thoughts.”
Pity the devil, I don’t think so.
Fascists and their sympathizers must be confronted, misunderstood. On the streets, at Mar-a-Lago and at the White House.
Otherwise, we will be guilty of appeasing tiki-torchi-wielding thugs who, if given the chance, would do what they have done before: corral and then destroy people for praying to a different god or not worshiping at all; for loving those who want to love them; due to illness or disability; and submission to people, not hatred.
We cannot tolerate illegality. That is the true meaning of denial. Therefore, our approach is clear: We must accept evil where it is not only found, but thrives, and then defeat it by any means necessary. Abandoning this job at this urgent hour would put such filth as Ye, Nick Fuentes, Donald Trump and Josef Nemsila.
This was unbearable when I first exposed Nemsila decades ago. It is unbearable today.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect Al Jazeera’s influence.
